I’m Still Thinking About Tommy Shelby’s Final ‘Peaky Blinders’ Cigarette

In the first five minutes of the first episode of Peaky Blinders, Steven Knight’s British crime drama inspired by the real-life gang of the same name, protagonist Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) struts through the streets of post-World War I Birmingham, England smoking a cigarette. He takes a few drags, exhales, casually tosses it to the ground, and goes about his business. We barely know him in that moment, yet the ease with which he smokes feels organic and well-established. Over the show’s six season run, Tommy lights thousands more cigarettes, solidifying the habit as an immovable part of his character. He smokes morning, noon, or night, after war flashbacks, after killing someone, after nearly dying, after sex, with a drink, when he’s alone with his thoughts — really anytime he pleases. It’s rare to see a scene where Tommy isn’t smoking, which is why his last cigarette of the series is so consequential.

One of the major storylines in Peaky Blinders’ sixth and final season revolves around Tommy’s belief that he’s terminally ill. After his daughter Ruby dies from tuberculosis, Tommy’s doctor tells him he’s developed tuberculoma and has 18 months to live. Rather than burden his family or succumb to his illness, Tommy plans to end his own life in solitude. With ten minutes left in the series finale, “Lock and Key,” we see the weary, somber man atop a hill, preparing for death outside a caravan. He takes a swig of alcohol, flips a coin, grabs his gun, and enters the wagon. After staring at a table of special keepsakes — including photos of Grace (Annabelle Wallis), John (Joe Cole), Aunt Polly (Helen McCrory), Lizzie (Natasha O’Keeffe), and his children — he removes his pocket watch and ring, and reaches for one last smoke.

The emotional scene, set to “Pana-Vision“, an eerie song from Radiohead’s side project The Smile, offers an intimate look at what Tommy believes are his final moments on Earth, and of course, his final smoke. He spends several seconds pensively rubbing the cigarette over his lips — a beloved mannerism Murphy revealed began because the prop department cuts the cigarette filters off, so the paper would stick to his lips unless moistened. With only his backlit face in frame, Tommy applies the cylinder of nicotine like lip balm one last time. He places the cigarette between his lips, but before he lights it, the camera pans to a mirror hanging in front of him.

The new vantage point offers a distorted view of Tommy, one as inverted as the dark turn of events that led him here, and the thought of a world without him. We see his reflection light the cigarette, inhale, and exhale, as he closes his eyes and tilts his head to the sky. The camera pans back to Tommy’s face as he takes another puff, grabs his gun, and walks to take in the caravan’s view. After a final inhale, Tommy forcefully tosses the cigarette outside in one last show of strength. He loads the gun with a bullet that bears his name and holds the weapon to his head, but before he has a chance to pull the trigger, a vision of his late daughter convinces him he’s not really sick. The show’s closing minutes consist of Tommy confronting (and nearly killing) the corrupt doctor who diagnosed him on behalf of politician Oswald Mosley. Tommy spares his life and returns to his caravan on horseback, only to learn someone set it ablaze.

While Tommy will thankfully live to smoke again, the caravan scene still marked his monumental final cigarette of the series. Knowing just how important cigarettes were to the smoky, soot-filled, industrial world Knight crafted, I found the sight of Tommy savoring one last smoke was unexpectedly moving. Much like whiskey, which Tommy gave up at the start of Season 6, cigarettes were tools of escapism after the war. It wasn’t uncommon for people like Tommy, who were battling severe PTSD, to use cigarettes to take the edge off of reality and achieve slivers of solace throughout their day.

Tommy kept a case on his person at all times, had a stash on his desk, and smoked with such frequency and feeling that he inspired a slew of smoking fancams and supercuts throughout the show’s 36 episodes. Each cigarette Tommy seductively smoked was laced with his dominant emotion. For him, the vice was a luxury, a relief, and a symbol of rebellion all in one. So the choice to have him stop and smoke a cigarette seconds before ending his life not only honored his character, it offered him one final pleasure and a few seconds to delay and try to accept his grim reality.

The sheer existence of that smoking scene, along with the creative choices that accompanied it — from the music, which stayed true to Peaky Blinders’ stellar Radiohead-heavy soundtrack, to the powerful cinematography in the caravan — set up a special farewell for one of TV’s mightiest characters. Here’s hoping Tommy will return to smoke again in a Peaky Blinders movie, but if not, at least the show went out with more than one memorable blaze.